Lifetime Achievement Award:
Duong Phuc and Vu Thanh Thuy, Radio Saigon Houston
Duong Phuc
Vu Thanh Thuy
Duong Phuc and Vu Thanh Thuy, Radio Saigon Houston’s President and Vice President/CEO, respectively, are the 2006 recipients of AAJA's Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes Asian Americans who have demonstrated courage and commitment to the principles of journalism over the course of a life's work.
Award-winning journalists of South Vietnam, Phuc and Thuy fled their homeland after the country fell under Communist control. Phuc and Thuy fled their homeland aboard a raft. Their subsequent open letter to the international press, which was read at a United Nations News Conference in Thailand in 1980, broke the story of the "boat people" to the world. They became internationally known for their lead role in the Boat People SOS Committee whose missions rescued more than 3,000 refugees in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Phuc and Thuy founded Radio Saigon Houston in 1999 to engage and unite the local Vietnamese community. Broadcast in English and Vietnamese, the station has become a significant resource in times of crisis.
After Hurricane Katrina last year, Phuc and Thuy helped coordinate shelter, food and medical care to support thousands of Vietnamese who were displaced from their homes when disaster struck. At the time, Thuy told an Associated Press reporter, "Having been a refugee myself years ago, I know exactly what it's like to be a refugee and I know what needs to be done."
The lives of Phuc and Thuy “tell the compelling story of courage and perseverance from wartime Saigon to the Katrina-ravaged shores of America,” said the award judges. “What started in 1999 as a radio station with a staff of three has become an invaluable framework for the Vietnamese community.”
http://www.aaja.org/news/aajanews/2006_04_22_01/